The keys to earning money on your blog/s are:

1) Have unique content.

2) Blog about something you know so you can provide valuable content.

3) Treat it like a business and have a plan.

4) Know how to design a layout that encourages ‘conversion’ not just clicks. Regardless of how your advertisers pay you – if they don’t see a return on their investment, they will not return.

So let go of your generic blog and  plan to build 1-3 NICHE content blogs.

So here’s some tips to figure out what your blog niche should be:

1. Make TWO LISTS – One of your passions & One of things you do well.
2. Make a list of all the things that are in BOTH lists and select 2-5 of these.

Here’s my example list:
Childrens fashion
Early Childhood Education
Homeschooling

Now that you know what topics you likely have enough knowledge and interest in it’s time to dig deeper…

You need to understand what people will search (keywords) to get to your site and how much potential traffic those keywords (your niches) have.

Google has done the homework for you. They KNOW how many people have searched for your topics, and that information will tell you what sort of traffic potential your blog has.

3. Go to Google Keywords and search for your topics..

Here’s some interesting results in my searches under ‘childrens fashion’:
The top search was clothes girl 1,500,000 and the competition wasn’t hat high (about 3/4 bar)
baby girl clothing came next 1,000,000 and the competition was really high.
An interesting surprise was ‘smocked clothing’ 40,500 and not too high for competition.

4. Now you need to consider the money making potential.
Go to Google and search for your keywords- look to see how many ‘sponsor ads’ you find in the side bar.
Check The top three Affiliate networks to see what sort of CPA program offers are out there. What sort of commission do they offer ? Most campaigns need a min 12% to convert. Check their EPC rates.

It’s the publisher hat I am always talking about. You need to know your audience and your publication/blog’s potential reach if you want to earn ad revenue on your blog.

1) You have too many outgoing LINKS on your pages. (Side bars can kill your affiliate revenue if you have too many banners, buttons, and things that don’t earn you revenue.)

2) Your affiliate links aren’t generating enough clicks. (see number 1)

3) You aren’t promoting your affiliate links across more than one venue. (i.e. you are only placing links in your sidebar.)

So how do you solve this? Take one of your programs (we’ll use TotSites as an example here ) and create a plan.

1) Place  a converting banner in the top fold of your side bar. I hate to say it – but 125 buttons do NOT click. Their click ratio – well stinks-  compared to a 160 by 600 skyscraper. What is it they say – go BIG or go home use an ADSERVER to get the most of your space.

2) Use your old content. Go through your old posts and  put the 500×100 banner across the bottom of your posts. This way you don’t take away from your post’s content  but give your readers somewhere to click when they are done reading your post.

3) Create a weekly post on a  relevant topic that contains the sites KEY WORDS. For Tot sites these could be any post related to your children. Schedule them to come out over the month.

4) Social Media->  If you have a Facebook  page or group share your affiliate links on your wall. Tweet your links out using a free service like hootsuite.com  to schedule a unique tweet every 3-4 days.

5) If you have a newsletter, plan to feature one of your affiliate programs in each one. Email the program manager and ask for a product ‘bio’, product image, and company logo.(if you don’t have a newsletter – it is time to get one- check out Mail chimp. It’s free for up to 500 subscribers.

6) Promote your affiliate links onsite, through social media, and email.(OK I repeated that – but it is important to NOT put all your eggs in one basket.)

7) Build traffic to your site.

Have realistic expectations of the numbers it takes to convert an ad on the Internet. Less than 4% of the clicks to any one ad will result in a sale.

9) Create quality SEO ‘d posts and pages relevant to the ads located on the page.

10) Unless you have a VERY niche site with very targeted banner ads – The side bar banner ads won’t be  your bread and butter. Your pages are. Place your banners and text links in your content.

So how do you get the search engines to bring you those visitors ? With some blog SEO.

There are some ways to automate blog seo. If you have a wordpress blog there are a few blog seo plugins. However if you don’t understand why you need seo and how to seo your blog posts manually maybe you should hold off on the seo automation.

Quick and dirty tips (ok not really dirty) for blog post SEO

1)  CONTENT -  Google bots will read every word in each of your posts. For the best results you need at least 2-3 paragraphs and each post should relate to a specific topic. Know your topic ahead of time.

2) Know the keywords you need to include. You may think that ‘coupon organizer’ is the blog seo keyword that will get you the most qualifying traffic, but Google and the search engines HAVE the numbers. The KNOW what keywords people search.

So use a handy sidebar tool like Wordtrack SEO blogger or Google’s keyword generator and use the top searched keywords.

Using Wordtracker SEO Blogger on I  typed in ‘grocery coupons’ and it gave me a list  of 30 TOP searched keywords on Google to include

3) Title tags – The top keyword should be in your Title

i.e. Organize your ‘grocery coupons’ savings with the couponizer

4) Meta tags: Blog Seo means including your keywords in your meat tags along with a description using your blog SEO keywords. This is a bit harder in blogger or blogspot. There are many great videos on you tube explaining how to create SEO meta tags in blogger.

Good SEO is about quality content rich in keywords.

If you are creating content for a specific affiliate program, consider writing 2-5 posts at once, using a different  but relevant ‘content idea’. Then schedule your posts over a three month period.

However, like everything in life, you always should have a few  ‘insider secrets’.

Most of the programs at Her Affiliate are run through the Share a Sale network. This means outside of the affiliate programs I manage you will have access to MANY other affiliate programs at Share a Sale as well.  Our programs run through Share a Sale are managed, so you know the chances of them ever being ‘inactive’ are pretty slim. Should you join other programs that aren’t actively managed you may see that the merchants occasionally are deactivated by Share a Sale.

This means all the hard work you put into putting up banners and links could be fruitless when they don’t link through. Today’s’ tip is to make sure you utilize these links should your ‘merchants’ be deactivated.

Simply Log onto your share a sale account and under account settings insert a redirect URL.

One simple step to cover your Share a Sale affiliate program links ….

Affiliate Merchant = the corporate retail store (ie home depot) that you partner with to earn commissions
Affiliate Program = The terms of the program in which an affiliate merchant establishes with us to promote their product/service on a commission bases
Affiliate Manager = represents an Affiliate Merchant – the person who manages Home depots affiliate program.
Affiliate Network = The company that serves, tracks, and pays out commissions for an affiliate merchant (i.e. Linkshare, CJ,Pepper Jam
Inhouse affiliate program = describes the affiliate program of an affiliate merchant who uses their own tracking software to serve, track, and payout their program using affiliate scripts/software hosted on their servers (such as IDEV) instead of a network like CJ.
Affiliate = the individual or company that runs the affiliate programs to earn a commission.

Difference between Affiliate Marketing and Network marketing

Affiliate marketing does not require the affiliate to ‘recruit’ a downline of any sort. There is NO cost to join an affiliate program. It is a direct partnership between a company with a product or service where the affiliate advertises/promotes a service or product in exchange for a commission (or cost per ACTION – CPA) on each and every sale.

Network marketing is considered in the affiliate industry as MLM. It focuses on the development of a downline and recruiting shoppers more then the products. There is often a ‘cost’ associated to participate or a minimum ‘ purchases required or pushed’.

For MORE great affiliate resources, consider joining Her Affiliate. A free resource of niche programs (women and parenting) for affiliates.

To earn revenue on your blog you will need to look at your blog from a business point of view. When I say this to bloggers who come to me about working with me as an affiliate partner, the most common reply is that they are concerned that they will have to give up the creativity or the quality of their writing.

I will say that if you are not prepared to adjust your writing to consider SEO and relevancy for the affiliate programs you will likely earn LESS revenue as an affiliate compared to those who do.

To become a successful affiliate, or to earn ad revenue on your blog you will need to look at your blog as a business.  Take the time to learn about online advertising it is not the same as print advertising. Learn about affiliate programs and how they work. Set some realistic affiliate revenue goals for your blog and then make changes need to reach those goals.

Here is an example; the blog OrganizedFamilies.com writes to a specific audience ‘Moms’. It then narrows it topic further to specific subject. The affiliate programs that earn affiliate revenue on that blog relate to a specific topic.

So here are some tips for bloggers wishing to earn revenue on their blogs as an affiliate;

1) Learn about SEO

2) Remember if you wish to earn revenue (affiliate OR ad revenue) you have to look at your blog as both a business and a platform for publishing your writing.

3) Hook up with some affiliate managers who know your blog audience.

4) Set realistic goals. Affiliate programs will convert but not right away and not without a bit of work.

5) Training. There is a lot of free affiliate training  on the Internet.  Set aside a bit of time each day for training.

6) Work. You would think it’s a given, but too often we get caught up in twittering and other time consuming internet activities.  Focus more time on promoting your affiliate programs and driving quality traffic (traffic that will make purchases) to your blog and you will see more revenue.

Click Here to become an affiliate partner with our Parenting Merchants. There is never any cost to bloggers that work with us.

• Think about your skills and knowledge. Don’t go with the latest affiliate ‘trend’. To be a successful affiliate you will need quality content related to the affiliate programs you choose. So think about the topics you know and will enjoy writing about and become a niche affiliate in those 2-3 topics. Once you develop your affiliate skills and knowledge consider branching out.

• Come up with something unique. Your affiliate platforms (i.e blogs, ezines, newsletters, websites) should stand apart from the rest.

• Create a website. I suggest using wordpress. HostGator is a great host that offers one click wordpress installation. GoDaddy is a great source for registering and managing all of your domains in one location. Affiliate Theme is a great simple Premium WordPress Theme developed for affiliate websites.

• Select Affiliate programs: Pick a few affiliate programs that fit your site and audience. Start with a few and write your content to suit the affiliate programs. Don’t simply put up banner ads and expect sales. It will take some time for your content to spidered and your SEO strategies to start working so be patient.

• Learn about SEO: You need to know hoe to get traffic to your website. SEO doesn’t happen over night. Quality organic (unpaid) traffic to your affiliate websites takes time to build.

• Affiliate Training: I am not big on affiliate training. More important then training is spending time creating valuable content and working on your SEO. However, if you are new to the idea of affiliate training I suggest looking at: Affiliit.

Also call on the affiliate managers of the programs you are promoting to offer you affiliate training and resources. This is their job as an affiliate manager.

“When it comes to getting things done, we need fewer architects and more bricklayers.” -Colleen Barrett

Are you an architect or a bricklayer?

Recently I received an interesting email from an affiliate. I tried my best to reply in detail and truly help the affiliate, but in the back of my mind I wondered if it was truly worth it.

What this affiliate wanted to know was how to go from being a newbie, which he is, to being a $100,000/month affiliate. Of course, we all want to know that, right?

What this affiliate failed to understand, and it is the harsh reality of…well, any business, is that most people don’t go from a newbie to making $100,000/month. They make $1,000/month, $5,000/month, $20,000/month, and so on.

This affiliate had a list of approximately 20 questions. He had all the best intentions in the world. He reads all the blogs and probably all of the forums, but what I often fear with affiliates like this, is that he will have a failure to actually take action!

As the great German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe says, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply!”

I see so many affiliates who suffer from the proverbial “paralysis by analysis” and it is unfortunate because these affiliates truly have a thirst for knowledge and a desire to achieve. But too often, they live by fear. Fear of failure, fear of taking the wrong action, and often a fear that they are missing out on the latest news, trends, or tip that is going to make them an instant millionaire. All the while, they are missing out on actually doing. They are failing to act.

When I am asked for tips on how to market a program, I always make sure to end my 3-5 major bullet points with this simple piece of advice:

Be sure that your immediate to-do list is no more than five items long. In order to add a sixth item, something on your list must be done or eliminated. Don’t allow your to-do list to become a mountain of things that you never even get to.

Leave a spot on your to-do list open for new ideas too. If you read of a new idea and want to try it, try it! Don’t wait…take action!

The marketing world, and particularly the affiliate world, is full of ideas. Crazy ideas, weird ideas, revolutionary ideas, and plenty of “why did I not think of that?” ideas. A lot of them really work. A lot of them fail miserably. How many times have you failed? If the answer is not “a lot,” then you are probably not taking enough action.

Let me be clear, there is a time for planning and brainstorming and certainly researching. There is a time to be an architect. But Mrs. Barrett is right when it comes to affiliate marketing, we need more bricklayers. That is the true secret to success.

What are you waiting for? Take action now!

Matt McWilliams is the award-winning Affiliate Manager for the Learn and Master Learning Courses, whose products include guitar, piano, drums, and dance training, online at http://www.learnandmaster.com/affiliates.